There are two schools of thought when it comes to Street Stock racing. The first is old school: use primarily stock parts to keep the costs down and the cars to a reasonable speed. Racers will have to scrounge junkyards and be inventive to make their cars both fast and durable. The second school of thought says that many of the traditional components used in Street Stock racing-particularly the small-block engine-have become too scarce in junkyards and the real world to be economically feasible, so in order to save costs stock replacement parts should be allowed.

Neither school of thought is wrong. And just like some people like ketchup on their eggs while others prefer Tabasco, they are just different.

In the case of Frank Kimmel's Street Stock Nationals touring series, the rulebook had to be purposely loose in order to draw as many cars as possible. The Street Stock Nationals is designed to give local Street Stock racers a chance to race on some pretty impressive tracks-such as Rockingham Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway-and draws racers from all across the country. Coming from so many different tracks (and many different rulebooks), practically every car is different. In order to accommodate them, the Street Stock Nationals allows lots of different engine combinations and attempts to even things out with weight breaks and penalties.

Circle Track followed along as race engine specialist Rhyne Competition Engines screwed together a new Chevy small-block to be raced in the SSN's Polar Bear 150 at Rockingham. The engine was brand-new from fan to flywheel, and built specifically to the Street Stock National's rulebook.

We saw this as an opportunity to see the upper limit of Street Stock race engine technology. And the interesting thing about this build is how easy it is to build a race engine that stays within the spirit of Street Stock racing without wasting lots of time and money trying to refurbish old, worn out junkyard parts. The aftermarket has lots of affordable, durable components that allow the modern Street Stock racer to put together a high-power, dependable race motor without breaking the bank. We won't give the blow-by-blow of the complete engine build here since there is nothing exotic or trick going on. We're just showing you that good parts selection and intelligent engine building can produce a solid Street Stock mill. Just take a look and see.

The Dyno Sheet
An engine build doesn't have much worth if we can't back it up with hard numbers. We were impressed not only with the 452 peak horsepower though a 500 cfm two-barrel carb, but also the Kansas-flat torque line. The torque grunts out 473.2 lb-ft when the dyno pull begins at 3,000 rpm and doesn't dip below 460 until the engine hits 5,100.